In these essays, Charles Elliott casts a whimsical eye over gardens and gardening around the globe. From the Japanese craze for the Ingurishu Gaaden (English Garden) to the relentless plundering of tropical forests for glamorous orchids, from Bishop Compton's horticultural obsessions to sex and the single strawberry, Elliott seeks to bring to life some of the more remarkable episodes in horticultural history. He introduces great plant hunters such as the intrepid Pere Delavay and the oddball John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman. His tales come from places as diverse as the Chelsea Flower Show and the jungle-choked gorges and valleys of the eastern Andes - home of the elusive fever bark tree.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Devotees of Horticulture magazine will recognize many of Elliott's essays from his column, "The Transplanted Gardener," an often-irreverent look at the idiosyncratic differences between gardening in his adopted Britain versus his native America. The uninitiated will delight in Elliott's take on the fine, and not so fine, art of gardening, no matter where it occurs. From the Andean rainforest, home to the erstwhile Fever Bark Tree, to Boskoop, Holland, home of prodigious plant-producing nurseries, Elliott is both travel guide and garden guru, while piquant profiles of such legendary horticulturists as Roy Lancaster earn him the title of "botanical biographer." Although his pursuit of decidedly offbeat gardening stories is his stock-in-trade, nowhere is his talent more impressive than in the collection's introductory section, "Personal Considerations," in which Elliott regales with his own impressions of everything from British lawn-mowing habits to plant taxonomy. A witty raconteur, learned plantsman, and stylish essayist, Elliott's unbridled curiosity about all things horticultural takes the reader on an intriguing journey down often unexpected yet always entertaining garden paths. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Review
'Excellent as always. Charles Elliot is a wonderfully informed and engaging writer.' Bill Bryson
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Humorous & informative gardening sketches,
This review is from: The Potting-Shed Papers: On Gardens, Gardeners, and Garden History (Hardcover)
The short essays in this book are highly entertaining and informative, shedding light on many little-known aspects of gardening history. Elliott writes with humor and wit, and with a self-effacing posture that is disarming.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Around the world, hurtling through time,
By
This review is from: The Potting-Shed Papers: On Gardens, Gardeners, and Garden History (Hardcover)
Charles Elliott's The Potting-Shed Papers is a collection of essays, many reprinted from Horticulture magazine, that effortlessly blend garden history and contemporary garden trends. Elliott is at his best writing about the golden age of plant exploration, historic gardeners and their writings, and the origins of plants such as tree peonies and flowering cherries. His experiences actually gardening in both the U.S. and Wales provide for interesting insights into differing practices whether it be for laying out vegetable beds or maintaining lawns. His exposure to gardening around the world is shared via delightful commentary on the Ingurishu (English cottage style) gardens of Japan and the inner workings of a top Dutch nursery.
To me the most touching essay was "On Keeping Track," a rumination on gardening journals spurred by the discovery of an unknown woman's forty years of garden notes in a small leather-bound book headed for a charity shop. It brings together all of Elliott's interests--plants, gardens, and garden history--and leaves the gardening reader feeling part of an unbroken continuum of gardeners always awaiting the next best bloom. Recommended for anyone with more than a passing interest in historical aspects of gardening.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolute must for the gardening fanatic,
By Merbert "Merbert Music" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Potting-Shed Papers (Hardcover)
Those of you who have stacks of seed and plant catalogs at your bedside (some of them wrinkled from having been repeatedly dropped during bathtub reading) - those of you who get giddy from the perfume of the first spring rain hitting the compost pile - those of you who can name more varieties of roses than the names of members of your family, must have this little book.
Non-gardeners simply won't understand, and that's OK. We can keep this gem to ourselves!
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